A lot of people wake up at 3 or 4am. This is typically stress related.
Possible solution:
1. Sit up or get up. If getting up, I usually get a mint tea.
2. Journal. Write down your thoughts. Very important: write down _what you are going to do tomorrow_, step by step. Usually the brain is worrying about something and by telling it what you’re going to do about it tomorrow it seems to calm down.
3. When you’ve gotten everything out, read. Just keep reading until you can’t keep your eyes open.
I’ve found this almost always works. Waking in the middle of the night is caused by stress around a problem. Your brain just wants to know the narrative around how that problem will get resolved or improved. Then it will fall sleep again.
Comments
A lot of people wake up at 3 or 4am. This is typically stress related.
Possible solution:
1. Sit up or get up. If getting up, I usually get a mint tea.
2. Journal. Write down your thoughts. Very important: write down _what you are going to do tomorrow_, step by step. Usually the brain is worrying about something and by telling it what you’re going to do about it tomorrow it seems to calm down.
3. When you’ve gotten everything out, read. Just keep reading until you can’t keep your eyes open.
I’ve found this almost always works. Waking in the middle of the night is caused by stress around a problem. Your brain just wants to know the narrative around how that problem will get resolved or improved. Then it will fall sleep again.
I don't think this is universal. For example: rotating shift workers can have a mostly physiological insomia, due to various disrupted rhythms.